FF - Left Behind
by BadWritingAnon
Summary: The Freedom Fighters search the Tundra for answers. Also known as : Local Anon can't think of a good way to summarise his story.
1. Chapter 1

Haha this website doesn't do tabs or let you format how your story looks so it's two spaces for each enter and there's no indenting.

Just dumping a bunch of text, if you like Sonic or Archie or want to read something dumb, have at it.

* * *

It wasn't just a cold wind, thought Sally, gripping her hood tightly over her frozen face, it was a wind that had become intimate, that hugged you to your soul, leaving nothing but a frozen skeleton and rigid bone tissue, it's soulless husk only kept alive by what was left of her brain. Or at least it felt like it to her, glaring at Rotor's stride as he trekked through the tundran wasteland. It helped that he grew up here when he was a kid, and Rotor's muscle, fat and blubber was doing more than the five coats Sally had covered herself up with could ever do.

It was only an intervention that stopped her from putting on more, a decision she was highly regretting now.

"H-hmprhp" Sally started before finding out her scarf was obscuring any meaningful sound from her frosted lips.

"Rotor, Sally wants to know how much further!"

Sally looked down in surprise at Nicole's handheld, Nicole's low resolution image holding out her thumb at her. She smiled weakly at Nicole, her teeth chattering. A second later, Rotor walked back through the blizzard towards her.

"C'mon Sal, this is nothing."

"I-I'm f-f-freezing my ch-cheeks off R-rotor."

"Bunnie and Antoine are doing fine."

"S-she's been charging an e-energy blast through her a-a-arm cannon the entire way here," said Sally, wiping some of the snow from her face. "W-why do you th-think Antoine's so snug up to her left side?"

Rotor's hand tried to ease out the wrinkles in his eyes.

"Save yer power I said. Conserve energy, I bloody well said."

Nicole's hologram shot out of her handheld, her slightly pixellated form standing roughly where the show was, but not making an indent. Sally didn't blame her, it had to be warmer inside Sally's pocket than it was actually manifesting solid form out here.

"Rotor, my gps indicates there might be a settlement up ahead." Nicole pointed past some mounds of snow, Rotor pulling out his map. "It's not too far off track, and the others could do with some warmth and some food."

"But Nic, we're going to be losing time."

"Negative, we will lose more time if we keep going. Sally isn't fit enough to keep walking through this. Her body temperature is down twenty percent, her walking has slowed easily by seventy-five percent. Soon we'll have to carry her."

"H-hey."

Rotor stared at Nicole, then Sally.

"Plus Rotor," continued Nicole, "If we keep going now with no rests until we hit the temple, judging from the temperature of your flask in your bag, well, your coffee will have gone stone cold by then."

"Don't joke about that Nicole."

"Check your flask then."

Rotor reached for his bag slowly, but after a brief pause, retracted his hand.

"One stop."

"T-th-thanks R-rotor" said Sally, stomping some life back into her boots.

"It's not about the coffee, I'm just being considerate."

"I-I know."

"I might drink my coffee then, but that's co-incidental."

"N-no-one said otherwise."

"Good."

"G-good."

He gave her a kind look and ruffled Sally's hat, causing her red hair to blind her, but also kept some of the more persistent snow to stop falling on her face. He stomped back towards the rest of the group, ready to start yelling at the comfortably warm pair slowly melting snow in their wake.

Starting to trudge her way back through the snow, trying to keep on Rotor's trail, she grabbed Nicole's hand-set from her pocket and opened it up with her thick mitten-like gloves.

"Th-thanks Nic, you're a legend."

"I try."

"...H-how come y-you talk all official t-to R-rotor anyway?"

Nicole blushed, her pixellated display shimmering across the led screen.

"He likes machines, he trusts them more." Nicole said, shrugging her artificial shoulders.

"B-but you're m-more than a machine Nic, b-be more … well, m-mobian."

"Oh, I know Rotor knows that. But statistical data and matter-of-fact eases his mind, he's a technical minded guy. He trusts my opinion more when I speak like a … machine." Nicole's eyes flitted down for a second. "It's not his fault, he doesn't mean anything by it."

"W-we'll change th-things N-Nic." said Sally. "Th-the whole world w-will see you like I do."

Nicole's screen blipped red.

"You're sweet Sal." she replied, a bashful grin on her face. "But please, put me away before my motherboard freezes."

"Oh god."

Sally shoved Nicole's handset back into the folds of scarf in her pocket, patting it for good luck.

"S-sorry Nic."

Nicole beeped chirpily from her pocket as Sally marched forward towards the rest of the group. It was fairly obvious to where they were, a scorched hole in the ground and the melting snow forming a large circle was a relatively good start.

"What did I say?!" Rotor shouted at the now embarrassed couple, one Mr. and Mrs. D'Coolette, hanging their heads in shame at the tirade of the furious walrus that stood in front of them.

"I-it was so cold, sugah..."

"It might be colder later, we might run into badniks, you don't know what's out there!" he yelled, turning on Antoine as he continued. "Wasting your energy warming yer goddamn boyfriend with a goddamn portable fusion powered heater!" He turned towards the coyote, who was trying not to look him in the eyes. "For the love of god, man up T'wan!"

"R-Rotor, my sword is, how we say, brittle? Like it might just snap off just by facing ze elements? Zis is for that as well..."

"It's not the only thing that's going to snap off in a minute, you …". Rotor put his anger on pause as he stared at Sally, eyebrow raised. "And what on Mobius are you doing there chipmunk."

Sally instinctively started to put her gloves back on and stand up from the still warm charred earth, her now somewhat rosy cheeks glowing with embarrassment.

"Wasn't going to let this go to waste, it's freezing Rotor!"

Rotor gave out a large sigh and started walking off through the snow once more, gesturing with his hand.

"Come on then" he sighed defeatedly, his feet dredging across the white mounds that came up to his waist. "May as well get you wusses a place to stay quick, if you're going to cause me grief otherwise."

The rest followed suit, Antoine nesting his sword against his fur, Bunnie leaving him briefly to catch up to Sally, who was in the middle of putting on her fifth coat.

"Hey Sal, you ok?" asked Bunnie, watching her with concern.

"C-could you warm my hot water bottle up, I think my hearts frozen."

Bunnie smiled.

"I think it'd take a lot more than that, sugah."

"I-I'll take the compliment but s-seriously, if you could warm this hot water bottle before my muscles give out, I'd be g-grateful."

"Oh shucks, sorry."

Bunnie grabbed the hot water bottle and shot a tiny blast of her cannon into the opening, boiling the water inside. She handed it back to Sally, who took the time to shove it underneath all of her coats.

"God that feels better, thanks Bunnie."

"Anytime hun." the rabbit said, shaking her arm so the last bit of power dissipated. "Is Rotor okay?"

"Huh? How come?"

"He seems kinda stressed."

"We must be going so slow to him, I think he just wants to head back and fix up the Sky Patrol to be honest." Sally climbed over a frozen mound of snow that blocked her way. "It'd be like going through Mirage Saloon and being slowed down by all the cowboys for you I suppose."

Bunnie pouted.

"Yer lucky I powered down mah cannon, princess."

Rotor's clapped his hands, which grabbed the groups attention.

"If we don't make it to this settlement soon, it'll grow dark! The temperature might actually get cold by then, so get a move on!" shouted the walrus, his hands cupped to combat the blizzard that spun around them.

"Wh-what does he mean 'might actually get cold...'" asked Antoine, who holstered his sword back up to the heated cannon of his wife.

"If I were you," started Nicole's voice, sounding out from the pocket of Sally's coat, "...I probably wouldn't want to find out. I don't think it's actually possible for you three to survive the night."

"Gonna have to take some drastic measures then." said Bunnie, stretching her arms. "T'wan, c'mere, Sally, jump on mah back."

They both climbed on to Bunnie, who lifted them with ease.

"You got a keeper here Antoine." laughed Sally, holding on to Bunnie as much for warmth as for grip.

"And does'n' he know it." said Bunnie, gritting her teeth. They marched onward, the three of them bashing their way through the ice and snow.

* * *

Forty minutes later, they had reached their destination, a small outpost with Holoskan markings. From what Rotor had mentioned, scientific researchers used to come up quite frequently, and while the locals were often seen as unfriendly and direct with strangers, they had helped set up some of the outposts, complete with a working heating system and would often cook fish for any visitors.

According to the walrus currently unpacking his coffee jar and flask, this was mainly to keep an eye on them. They would help anyone in need, of course, their close community for eons had formed the very DNA that ran through them, but they would primarily protect their own. And what with Dr. Eggman's forces not yet reaching the depths of Holoska, it wasn't surprising no-one wanted to be the first to endanger their people.

Sally had taken the time, once Bunnie and Antoine had managed to wrestle her out of the tangle of coats, scarfs and gloves, to lay out the map, pouring over it as the rest got accustomed to the heat. Sally had beaten them to it before, and had blocked the fireplace's roar until she could feel her heart beat again.

According to her map, they were roughly two hours away from the temple, which would hopefully be the end of this part of their trip, another chapter in this long arduous mission.

"Kær vör uþhoen?"

Sally's pen rolled across the floor as she finished being startled, and looked up to see two Holoskan natives, two purple walruses bigger than Rotor standing over her in curiosity, pointing at the map.

"O-oh, sorry, I don't speak…" She said, before coming to a halt.

"Mötu Kær?" said the larger of the two, pointing at the temple Sally had circled on the map in red ink. He tapped it a couple of times while looking into Sally's face, but after a while the lack of any response made the big one shrug, and he and his friend walked back off to the bar, talking between themselves.

"Nicole, what was he saying?"

Nicole's display powered back on, and greeting her was a shrugging lynx, dictionary in hand.

"I genuinely have no idea Sally. I couldn't find any reference to it, I assume it's some old version of Holoskan but I'd have to spend time referencing and researching it."

"He was asking ya if you were going to the Sun Temple in the north."

Surprised, Sally and Nicole turned to see Bunnie sat there, a comfy jumper over her leotard with a steaming cup of hot-chocolate and Antoine holding her free hand.

"How… how did you know that?" said Nicole, as Sally was still wondering where to start on the southern-belle foreign language expert.

"Some of us actually listened to Rotor on the flight here, y'know, while you had your headphones in texting your girlfriend."

"I was doing nothing of the sort." said Sally, shutting down Nicole's glowing red monitor.

"It's actually a mix of Holoskan and Soleannan." continued Bunnie, sipping her hot chocolate, the marshmallows dissolving in the practically broiling brew.

"According to Rotor, ze travellers and ze locals had come up with it to meet each other half the way." Antoine said, pulling up a stool and sitting with the group. "It's not a bad language as it goes, but it has nothing on the most beautiful of languages, not to brag or anything."

Bunnie rolled her eyes, but kissed him nonetheless.

"So how come you both know it?" came Nicole's muffled voice.

"Ah, my digital lynx, I'm multi-lingual, I pick em up on ze way."

"And you?" questioned Sally, to a now blushing Bunnie.

"I… I asked mah husband."

"Paid attention huh?"

Bunnie blushed.

"I was conservin' energy."

Sally raised her eyebrow.

"Ah was dozin'."

Sally smiled and motioned them all to sit around the map. Nicole came out of her handheld to join them, taking on solid form. It wasn't too long before one of the natives wordlessly came over with a hot drink, and then threw a quilt over her shivering body. Thanking him, but getting no response, she then shared it with Sally.

"Right, we'll start without Rotor, probably best to leave him with his coffee, he's done well to get us this far." said Sally, looking at the rest of the group, watching them look over the map before them. It was a huge thing that they had had to unfold several times to get the entire spread across the floor. The gang, leaving a space for Rotor, were sat in one of the corners around some of the mountain ranges. "We've managed to reach this small outpost here." she continued, pointing at the map, at a small wooden cabin symbol nested between two ridges. "The small Holoskan outpost of..."

There was a momentary pause as Sally's fingers ran across the word a couple of times, before she stared at Antoine.

"Mr. Multilingual, if you please." she asked him, as he peered at the word.

"Nũla Keƥt"

Sally pouted.

"You'd think they'd make it easier for people passing through."

Antoine stood up slowly, picking up his cup from the map, leaving a circular stain across a lake and a compass symbol.

"Ze only people who walk across these lands normally are natives from either city, Princess. With their own history, their own cultures." he ruffled Bunnie's ears, causing her to blush crimson. "Why should zey have to change any of that for you?" he finished, smiling at the rest of the group.

"O-oh."

"It's no worries Princess, but you should really pick up that second language, no?" he said, giving a quick wave of his hand. "Zey make the nicest hot chocolate here you have no idea, I'm getting another." He walked off, leaving Bunnie to cuddle up on her own.

"He doesn' mean anything by it sugah." said Bunnie, after a moment of silence. "He's just… he's worried his own language will end up the same, not even recognised by outsiders."

"I mean..." started Sally, awkwardly, staring at the map. "This is a made up language, it's … it's a botch job of two separate languages and cultures."

"Ah guess that's true Sal, but aren't they all? A small language, but it'll die out, like some of the big languages, and with a language, culture. It's happened to languages bigger than French Sally."

There was a laugh behind them, as Rotor and Antoine walked back, the smell of coffee hitting them with the force of a nuclear blast. Even Nicole seemed to be slightly jittery in it's presence.

"Antoine?" said Rotor, sitting in the gap that they had left for him. "He's the embodiment of France, as long as he or his descendants live, I don't think French culture could die."

"I'll take that as the compliment" Antoine said, sitting beside Bunnie once more.

"Fighting spirit, love of his country, a romanticist at heart, what can I say T'wan, you're the perfect Frenchman." He sipped his coffee as Bunnie cuddled her grinning husband. Rotor smirked. "And surrenders on a dime."

Nicole looked over the map, ignoring the hurtled teaspoon ricocheting off of Rotor's blubber.

"We're approximately three hours away from the temple, if we go over this mountain." she noted to the group, who looked over to her gesturing. "Bit of a climb, mind you."

"No need Nic."

They looked up at Rotor, who was stirring his coffee. Well, more like dragging his spoon through solid mass. The coffee would sometimes swirl over his cup, where it would slowly congeal in the cold. The gang stared at it in horror as he ate his coffee, wiped off some of the more stubborn particles off his lip, and continued.

"The guys back there, they say there's a cave, cuts right through. Was apparently an old cargo railway commissioned by outsiders before they realised the tracks froze in the colder months." He chewed his coffee some more. "Well, the most cold months anyway."

"And it cuts right through?" asked Sally.

"All the way. Only slightly blocked by some wreckage of the last train to go through."

"Would beat going through the snow again, not gonna lie." admitted Bunnie.

"Would probably save the power in yer arm cannon." said Rotor, as Bunnie squinted angrily back.

"I didn't know you spoke … Holoskan… Soleannan… mix" said Sally, trying to read the name of the tunnel that Rotor had pointed out to her.

"I don't. It's a mix of two. Can't speak a word of Soleannan but you can make do on Holoskan. I assume it's the same the other way around Antoine?"

"Pretty much." replied Antoine.

"Talked about anything else?" asked Sally.

"Yeah, they were asking why we were going to the temple."

"Did you tell them?"

"Not in so many words."

Sally put her head into her hands and sighed.

"What do you mean, "not in so many words"." she managed, after a short while.

"They guessed most of it. They have guards on outposts on some of the ridges there, some kind of snow… bat things, something that can see through the blizzards in any case. A bunch of disused swatbots near the main camps have stopped working, all powered down. And it takes them a while, but they hear the news."

"Ah." said Sally, who looked up at the gangs worried faces. "Do they know of -"

"I don't think so, no."

Sally stood up.

"How quick can we move?"

"Not for another twelve hours Princess." said Antoine, before Rotor could say anything else.

"Are you taking the mick?"

"Not taking any Michael's, I am afraid." He threw a leaflet over to Sally, as Nicole tried her best to decipher it. "It's so cold out there we will literally be … how do you say, freezed?"

"Ah, crumbs." sighed Sally, as she sat back down again.

"Crumbs indeed."

"It would probably be best if we got some rest" suggested Nicole, switching over to her hologram status. "...judging from your vital signals, you guys would collapse even if we were on a manageable temperature."

"W-we could try, surely?"

"Sal, you'd collapse in three minutes."

Rotor choked on his coffee as Sally sulked.

"Come on Bunnie, I will be asking these gentlemen for a room." Antoine told his wife, standing up to allow her to grab his hand.

"Steady on Romeo, let me do it." said Rotor, pulling the coyote back.

"But why?"

"Cause I want a room to sleep in, not a goddamn french fantasy with room service."

As Rotor went to talk to the other walruses, Sally packed Nicole snugly back into her pocket as Bunnie consoled Antoine.

"I-I would not have been asking them for much..." started Antoine.

"Ah know sugah." replied Bunnie sympathetically, hugging him tight with a smile on her face.

They took the time to fold the map until Rotor came back with another walrus.

"This here is Mursu." he explained, as the other walrus waved with a quick flick of his wrist. "He's studied English enough to get by."

"Hello companions!" said Mursu, grinning, his tusks shining, reflecting the fiery light from the candles in the cabin.

They greeted him back and shook his hand one by one.

"Boomer here is a good man, yes?" he laughed. After a brief pause as he stared at the group, they agreed and he carried on.

"He say you want to move to the temple in the snow, with the sun? I tell him, no, but he's a funny man! What a laughter, Boomer!".

Mursu looked over the group again. He whispered something that made no sense to Sally, but Antoine had become tense, shifting to a more defensive stance. Rotor had obviously noted it, and whispered something back. There was a brief conversation in low murmered tones, until they turned back to the group.

"Well, Mursu is going to look after us tonight in any case, he's got a couple of spare rooms down the hall he doesn't mind lending us."

Mursu handed an aged brown key over to Sally, who inspected it. It had engravings on it, she suspected it was hand carved generations ago, with old grooves that looked almost natural.

"For lonesome girl!" boomed Mursu, smiling once more.

"Probably the wrong choice of phrasing there." reflected Rotor, patting Sally's head with his giant hand.

"For the couple in love!" exclaimed Mursu again, handing out another key to Bunnie and Antoine, who took it hesitantly. "Beautiful shack this, yes? Start family here!"

Antoine's blood drained from his face, which any bystander would have probably attributed to his wife stealing it all for herself, for she had gone scarlet, both of them near paralysed.

"And my good friend Boomer! You stay and drink, yes?"

"I… I could have one."

"Fantastic!" finished Mursu, smiling once more, his jovial spirit at odds to what Rotor had explained before. Sally wasn't sure what to think of him, she had thought the locals around here weren't hospitable, whereas this man was … by and away too friendly. With Antoine needing to sit down, still white, probably far too hospitable too.

Mursu looked down at his keys, and hesitated.

"Where is girl?" he asked the group.

"Huh?"

"Girl, here before. Wrapped up in quilt with loner in own room."

Sally frowned, but put on her best diplomatic skills.

"She's… erm... give me a minute." Sally said, pulling Nicole's hand-set out of her pocket. "Here she is." she finished, as she showed Mursu Nicole's LED screen, her image flashing up on the screen with a shy wave.

"Oh."

"She's fine, honestly, she sleeps on my desk." said Sally, smiling at the walrus.

"Oh no, cannot do!" exclaimed Mursu, and in slow-motion, as Sally watched in horror, Mursu tried to pass a key into the digital realm. His unorthodox approach was not appreciated by Sally, who screamed as he stabbed the key into Nicole's handset and it bounced off the slate floor.

The following things happened in a blur, Sally hardly noticing as she lunged after Nicole's hand-held. Antoine's sword was unsheathed and started an upswing towards the walrus, at roughly the same time Bunnie's arm cannon started powering up. This was joined by Rotor both trying to pull Mursu out of the way while also trying to look over his shoulder to see how Sally was doing. Two walrus's behind the bar lifted clubs from behind the glasses, in such co-ordination that you could have sworn they rehearsed.

There was a silence throughout the room, as everyone held their breath, waiting for the next move.

"T'wan."

"Yes, Rotor?"

"Put down the sword please."

"But-"

"Those two walrus's over there could throw a club so hard it'd end up in Station Square. I assure you, it's a safe move right now." He turned towards Bunnie. "You, keep your cannon where it is."

"O-okay sugah."

Rotor shouted at the walruses, who put their weapons down, slowly.

"Bunnie, we're powering this situation down slowly, I've told Antoine to back off, now they have, and now you will, understand? No sudden movements, just nod."

Bunnie did so, and slowly lowered her weapon.

"Power it down too Bunnie, they can tell." Rotor glared at Mursu, and walked over to Sally, who hadn't moved, hadn't looked up, had cradled Nicole in her hands and was lying there motionless, sobbing uncontrollably into her scarf.

"Sally..." he started, leaning down next to her. He was joined by Bunnie, who, still being cautious of the two bar patrons, came to her side too.

"Sal, it's… it's ok, everything's going to be fine."

They put her in a sitting position, her eyes red, an iron grip on Nicole's hand-set, and tears flowing onto her damp scarf.

"Sally, let me take a look."

Sally shook her head, sobbing back into her scarf. Bunnie and Rotor exchanged concerned looks.

"It's made outta strong stuff, ah remember yer telling me Sal. It probably hasn't made so much as a scratch." said Bunnie, cautiously. "See, I listen sometimes." She nudged Sally carefully. "I don't doze all the time, see?"

Sally buried her head more into her scarf.

"Sal… look, let me look, if there's anything wrong, I might be able to fix it. It's, y'know, my job and all that." said Rotor, as he made an attempt for Nicole. It was noticed, and Sally crawled quickly away from them.

"Y-you don't know that!" cried Sally, big sobs, coughing as she spoke, her anguish overwhelming her. "Sh-she could be broke or… or dead or gone and i-it's all his fault and … I couldn't stop h-him and he just w-w" - she paused for breath - "went and m-murdered her a-"

"Sal, let me take a look please."

"NO!" screamed Sally, holding on tight to Nicole. "I…if I h-hold her here… and… I might be able to pretend that nothing h-happened at all, and sh-she's fine. I d-don't want to k-know that there's… there's nothing… nothing we can..." Her eyes welled up, Rotor's reflection shining back vividly, in a wavy image that shone off her teary eyes.

"Princess..."

Sally looked up at Antoine, who had walked over.

"Please, princess. It will be of hurting more, knowing we could have saved her if you let us see her earlier." he sat down next to Bunnie, who hugged him tightly. "We want to see her well too."

"B-but"

"Please, princess."

Sally looked at them all, and reluctantly, but eventually, handed Nicole over to Antoine, who passed it with caution to Rotor.

He gave it a once-over.

"I...is she o-ok?" asked Sally, trying to hold back her tears. Bunnie leant over and hugged her tight, as Sally started to weep again.

Antoine stood up and came to Rotor's side. They mumbled in Holoskan… or from what Sally could now gather, the mix of Soleannan too. They proceeded to start shouting at Mursu, who stood silently as they did so. The two bar patrons came over, and after a quick conversation with Rotor, went up to the attic.

"Bunnie!" shouted Rotor from the other side of the room.

"Yes?"

"Take Sally to her room."

"C...can do."

"W-wait, what… what are you doing, is she goin-"

"C'mon sugah."

Rotor, Antoine, two walruses and Nicole disappeared from Sally's sight, as she was led away reluctantly by Bunnie, into the somehow colder outpost as she pulled her scarf back up to her face.

* * *

The dark howling wind didn't even register to Sally, as she lay down in her bed that night, completely still. White noise rang through her head, her mind blank. Her soaking wet scarf hung from the desk beside her to dry. Where … where Nicole should -

She flung the scarf across the room where it landed with a huge thud against the wall and onto the floor.

How could she have failed her that badly, she had literally presented Nicole with her own demise, put her in the firing range as the executioner aimed and shot. It was replaying in her head again and again, the bouncing of Nicole on hard slate floor, the crack she swore she heard as it rattled and skid across the stones.

The room lit up suddenly, Sally's red marked eyes squinting in the bright opening from the hallway outside. This was only further exacerbated by the light turning on, with Bunnie, Antoine and Rotor coming into vision.

"Sal?" came Rotor's voice.

Sally shot up, rubbing her eyes vigorously, unfortunately making her eyes much worse than before. Still, she gave it the old college-try and got out of bed.

"H-how is she?" she asked, looking at the crew.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?"

Nicole came out from behind Rotor, smiling shyly at Sally, who stood in shock.

"A cracked screen, as it turned out. Well, that and the chucklehead managed to knock her battery out when she rolled around the floor, a screw came loose and a wire disconnected. Luckily, she has a back-up battery there with some juice to her, will probably need to power that back up when we can, or replace it."

Sally hadn't moved.

"Sorry it took so long sugah, we wanted to make sure everything was … was ok".

Nicole walked up to the immovable chipmunk, and gave her a hug, where Sally proceeded to immediately break down again.

"Oh christ, Sally, d-" Rotor started, before Antoine put his hand on his shoulder.

"My dear friend Rotor, we leave them alone. This is something they sort out now. Only she can cure this damaged heart."

"You're such a …" Rotor paused, looking for the right word. "...frenchman, Antoine. You've got a keeper there Bunnie."

"And doesn' he know it. C'mon, let's leave them alone now."

They walked out, leaving Nicole to try and console Sally, who, while still sobbing incoherently, gripped Nicole, as if to never let go.

* * *

Bunnie, easing her robotic arm, the screws and joints creaking slightly in the cold, walked over to the fire, joining Rotor, who was perusing some of the many leaflets that had been left around the cabin space. She had thumbed through some upon arrival but couldn't make heads or tails out of the writing. She'd have to ask Antoine later. Talking of which-

"He's practicing." came Rotor's voice from behind the paper he was looking at. Bunnie frowned.

"He doesn' need to practice, no-one out here could outmatch mah husband with a sword." said Bunnie defensively.

"It's cold up here, different tactics needed. You must have noticed it too, what with your limbs and all, surely?"

She rubbed her shoulderplate self-conciously, which moved unevenly across the base of her arm. She hadn't asked for these limbs, but she had accepted them over time, they were, at least to her, her own arms and legs. The possibility of getting her old ones was near impossible after all, and even so at this point, probably far too small, buried under a house in Knothole's wreckage.

Sitting down, she unhinged the spanner she kept in one of the side panels on her leg, and got to work on the loose nuts.

"Ah'll be fine."

"Bunnie..."

"And it's not your business what I notice." she tightened the nut on her shoulder angrily, until the spanner started to bend slightly under the pressure. "Who… who even made you in charge anyway?"

"I'm sorry."

Bunnie stopped, looking up to Rotor, who handed her his own spanner, an industrial heavy-set tool of his own making.

"It's… it's fine, sugah." said Bunnie quietly, getting back to work on the nut. "It's just… I remember only being able to use my arm." She wiggled the fingers of said arm at Rotor. "I had to come to terms with these, it took me far longer than I'd like to admit." She moved onto her knees, which seemed to have the same issue, and sighed. "I was of no help to you guys back then. Ah… ah can't be like that again. N-not now."

"We're a team, you silly rabbit. We need you, one limbed or not." said Rotor kindly, reaching his hand over to ruffle her hair.

"Don't yer dare. That's Antoine's job."

"Will remember."

"Ya better."

He sat back in his chair and took his reading glasses off, folding the leaflet in half and placing it with the pile he was going through.

"As for in charge, god no." said Rotor. "I just know the area. Couldn't plan a mission to save my life. Going off of Sally's notes."

"She made notes?"

"Well, dictated to Nicole, her hands had stopped working by then."

"Pfft"

Rotor stood up slowly, his tired eyes being illuminated by the candled around him, showing how arduous the day was like a neon sign.

"I'm going to bed anyway." he yawned, stretching his arms above his head. "Bloody A.I. surgery, I'm knackered." He walked past Bunnie and down the hallway. "G'night rabbit."

Bunnie waved to his yawning silhouette disappearing down the corridor and turned back around to the warm fireplace, a huge carved wooden affair. Engraved in the woodword were humans, walrus's, and from what Bunnie could make out, polar bears, in some sort of battle. It was impressive really, it seemed to tell some sort of story, references to some history that Bunnie was not privy too, but painstakingly carved into a fireplace of all things.

"It's beautiful."

She looked around to see Antoine, with a mug of hot-chocolate in either hand.

"Yer done yer trainin'?"

"Just about." he sat down next to his wife, as they snuggled up close to each other. "This cold, it makes it harder for the swing of the sword. More effort on each thrust and swing. But not important, how are you my sweet?"

"Not too bad hun." Bunnie replied, moving the spanner out of the way. "Nothin' I can't handle."

He kissed her on the cheek, and as she blushed he turned to look at the fireplace once more.

"It shows a massive battle, raging on, in a … circle, spring … spiral thing from the top left..." he pointed towards an engraving of several races next to each other "and it ends in the middle."

"In the middle's a fire T'wan."

"It is a beautiful metaphor."

"For what?"

Antoine paused, lost in thought.

"I am not sure, but if the rest ask, tell them it is something beautiful."

Bunnie laughed and squeezed his body next to hers.

"Yer could just admit you're not good with art."

"R-Rotor and Sally would laugh."

"I'd batter them." she said, leaning her head on his shoulders, holding his hand, their rings clinking together.

"How is the princess anyway?"

Bunnie looked up at his face, and saw nothing but his innocent eyes imploring. She shook her head, her huge ears flopping as she did so. There was little to no history between Sally and her husband, and considering Sally's life choices as well as the wedding ring on her finger, there wasn't any doubt or reason to believe this was anything other than a good friend asking about her.

 _But he asked her first. s_ aid the more treacherous part of her brain, the part of her brain that left her blindsided at 2am in the morning on cold nights. The nights she wished part of her brain got roboticised, so that the bits that doubted her perfect husband could feel nothing but cold silver.

The wedding rings clinked together once more, and Bunnie smiled once more.

"Ah don't know, ah left em to it, haven't seen them all night."

"Poor things."

Bunnie and Antoine's hands moved together, clasped tightly.

"She's already taken thing's badly so far. She's hidin' it well, but ah know her." said Bunnie quietly, moving her fingers on Antoine's hand. "Ah think she'd give up if she were to lose Nic in this too."

"Not surprised." said Antoine, leaning back. "Zey do belong together."

"More than me and you?"

"Oh Mrs. D'coolette, how could you say such things?" he laughed, ruffling her hair. "It's close, minding you." he admitted.

They lay down next to each other, falling asleep, their hands intertwined, the rings that bound them together giving off a final clink as they got lost in their own dreams.

* * *

"I really don't know if that's necessary Sally." said Nicole, worriedly, watching Sally put yet another roll of bubble wrap around her handheld. She was still in her solid form, her fur and her clothes damp with Sally's tears, staring as the red eyed chipmunk got another roll of duct-tape and covered the bundle again.

"Better to be safe than sorry!" said Sally, smiling faintly at Nicole, her occasional sniffling betraying her.

"It was just a bump, look, I'm fine." replied Nicole, spreading her arms out, gesturing with her hands to her body. "Bit damp, but that's your fault."

"Your battery came out. If you took a harder knock, you other battery could have gone too, is that correct?"

"It's plausible."

"What would have happened then?"

"I... don't know. I've never fully ran out of power, or at least, not this far out without a backup system."

"Exactly."

"You know, I'm not going to be able to run at full percent if you cover all the cooling vents with plastic, you know that right Sal?"

"I..."

Nicole reached for Sally's hand, who backed away, holding Nicole's handset bubble-wrapped bundle in her arms, protecting it almost like a baby.

"I don't care." finished Sally quietly, looking into Nicole's eyes. "I'll have you in low power mode… god… goddamnit Nic, I'll keep you off. I can't put your life at risk."

"Sal..."

"We've already lost everyone else Nicole! Don't think for one second I'm losing one more!"

Nicole stepped back. Sally had been until now rather optimistic about their mission, she had kept them all going until now with her positive outlook on the situation. Hesitantly, she sat down next to Sally again, who looked as surprised at herself at the outburst.

"P-please Nic, I don't… want to lose anyone else." she gripped onto Nicole again, holding on tight, her face buried into Nicole's jumper once more. "I d-don't want to lose you."

Nicole patted Sally's head, her hand running through Sally's hair. She was out of her depth a bit, she'd admit. She understood emotions, well, at least a lot more so, considering where she started from, all those years ago with the Freedom Fighters. She was practically her own person now, not just programming that responded with stock phrases. But extreme stress and emotion for the team, she was depended on for her quick thinking and analysis, keeping a cool head to diagnose and solve a situation. That was helpful in a battle, where there were facts, numbers, map plans and routes.

It wasn't too helpful with a crying chipmunk on her lap, unfortunately.

"It's going to be okay Sal, I swear."

It was a lame attempt, admittedly, but it was the only familiar oar in this canoe of reassurance, facing the ocean of Sally's despair.

The aforementioned Sally sniffled, moving her hand on Nicole's back.

"Do you mean that?"

"Yes."

"D'you know you twitch your ears when you lie?"

"No."

"Ha, I thought you did."

Nicole folded down her ears on her head as Sally got up, smiling a little.

"It's cute." Sally pushed her fist into Nicole's arm, nudging her slightly to the left. "But don't lie to me, please. You think this mission's going to go nowhere, don't you."

Nicole hesitated, but let go of her ears.

"I don't think we're going to find anything here." she admitted, before carrying on. "But we have no other information to go on. This is our only lead, but I have my doubts."

"At least you're honest." replied Sally, standing up shakily. "The rest keep telling me that we'll find some clue. I mean, we've always been relatively lucky before, right?" She grabbed her night clothes, which she had been too depressed to put on before. "I don't know, I think I was so gung-ho on this because it was our first clue, and now I nearly got you killed on what might possibly be a dead trail. I couldn't … I couldn't live with myself if that happened. To any of you guys."

"The rest think the same y'know."

"Huh?"

"They're worried about you too you know. I can see their faces, when you're struggling, emotionally or physically."

"O-oh."

Nicole shimmered, her solid form slowly turning from real mass to light, and then the light beamed back into her handheld.

"I'll make you a deal Sally." she said, her voice becoming tinny as her view took on a 4:3 display. She had added the borders herself, after having a long lesson on what cool was by Sonic, a long time ago. She did have to admit, the movie filter was … how did he describe it? Radical, if she recalled correctly.

"Go on." said Sally, taking her scarf off.

"I will remain in this handheld, and you won't take me out until we hit the temple."

"I agree."

"You have to agree to let Rotor carry you."

"No."

Nicole frowned.

"You just said."

"But… I'm the leader" said Sally, distressed. "Morale would be shattered if the leader is being carried by her crew, I have to … y'know, walk the same path."

"I'd agree if you weren't so bloody terrible in the cold."

"H-hey."

"Please Sally. You'd be a detriment to the team if you collapsed."

Sally stopped trying to undo her hoodie's buttons.

"Also... I don't know if I have the emotional level to deal with that circumstance." Nicole finished.

Sally put her gloves down, slowly. She walked over and hugged Nicole's protective foot long wide protective bubble-wrapped bundle.

"I'm sorry. I'll… I'll ask him."

"Sal?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah?"

"You going to unwrap this, I can't see a thing."

Sally laughed, as they shared a hug.

"I'll think about it."

* * *

It was still dark when Rotor woke up, shaking some of the frost off his face as he groggily reached for his coffee mug. It wasn't that he was against warm quilts, but there was something about being home that got him nostalgic for the nights he'd wake up and have to break a small sheet of ice off him. It wasn't anywhere near that cold up here now, but this was as close as it was going to get.

He shut the window, allowing some of the heat to get in, so that if any of the gang walked in they wouldn't immediately stop moving. He didn't think they were wusses, of course, they just … weren't prepared. He had told them, consistently for the past three days when Sally had come across that lead. He had run lectures on how cold it was up here, how the locals worked, he had even ran across some basic Holoskan for Sally and Bunnie. But they didn't listen, they never did.

They had tried, admittedly, but it was a bit hard going. All essential, but other than Antoine, who already knew it, they had fallen asleep or just texted each other messages of questionable relation to the topics he was discussing.

He moved over to his own personal coffee maker, which was plugged into one of the available sockets that he had in his own room. He wasn't a conspiratorial walrus by any means, but he found that everyone else who made a coffee, it was like some magical trick. Didn't matter how many coffee granules they put in, didn't matter the size of the mug, the effect was always the same. It was too weak. Without fail. Like some cruel universal joke that whatever deity up there be placed upon him. That he would forever have to politely decline people's best intentions to make him his coffee, to be rude in every house he was in. To constantly crave a decent brew the entire time, watching people drink weak coffee, as if to mock him.

Shaking his head, he switched the machine of his own design on, and started packing his bags again. If they left in the next hour, they'd be catching the warm sun as it rose up over the horizon, something he was sure the gang would appreciate waking up early for. He was in the middle of pouring the ice out of his mug onto the bedside table when the door suffered a heavy thumping.

"Boomer? You in?" came a loud voice, in perfect Holoskan. Rotor sighed, opening the door to see Mursu, packed to the gills with hiking and mountaineering equipment, a big smile on his face.

"Can I help?" muttered Rotor back in, admittedly, rusty Holoskan, staring him down.

"Your crew are ready to go, I assume?" said the carefree walrus.

"They have another hour in bed, it was a long night." he replied, walking back to his mug, where the kettle fought against the cold to boil.

"They'll lose out on a big part of the day, Boomer, they'll have less time to make it to the temple."

Rolling his eyes, Rotor took a smaller cup out of his bag and weighed out two servings before dropping them into his mug, the strength of it seemed to make the fibers of his gloves stand on end. Now that there, he thought was a coffee. There were places he went to, foolishly when he was younger, that … god forbid, put milk in the damn thing.

Shuddering, he turned back around to Mursu, who looked concerned at the near solid mass, potent enough to be almost alive. There were some studies of thought among the Skypatrol that at this point, Rotor was eating a sentient being by the time it got to the mug.

"Look, let them sleep, they've had a long night, and they probably don't want to wake up tired to you, no offense man."

Mursu looked bewildered, placing his bag onto the floor.

"I dropped her machine with the girl in it, you fixed it right, what's the big deal?"

The walrus caught Rotor's fist before it collided with his face.

"I must warn you Rotor, you do that again, I won't be as polite." he said, pushing Rotor back. "You haven't been here in some time, I take it. You lack experience and poise, and even with that you decided to lose your temper. That's suicide out here, friend."

Rotor breathed out, calming down, his temper subsiding. He wasn't a pacifist by any means, he would fight if he had to, but he was supposed to be the level headed one of the group, the adult. At least, he had thought so.

Leaving his coffee to settle, he sat back down on his frosty bed.

"It's … it's been a bad couple of weeks. We've lost some friends about a month ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." responded Rotor. "But we can't be losing anyone else. That computer you knocked over is … one of us, part of the family."

"Family?"

"Hell, more than that. One of the … what's the word, bonding, lifetime, it's like a mix of those two."

"Kêùppo?"

"That's the one. Rusty at this."

"Ah."

Ripping the spoon out of his coffee, the hard sludge dripped of the end, leaving genuine imprints on the floor. Mursu's horrified gaze caught Rotor's attention.

"You want one?"

"I can't begin to tell you how much I don't." he said, backing away slightly. "I am sorry, by the way, I didn't mean to knock that girl to the floor, but I didn't know how much that machine meant to you." He sat down on the bed next to Rotor. "Will they forgive me?"

"I don't think one of them ever could. But she's going to have to at least put up with you. You know the the abandoned railway?"

"Know it? My father built it."

Rotor whistled, impressed.

"Fair dues, making a railway's hard work. But he must have known it was going to freeze, surely?"

"He made sure he was going to get paid in advance."

"Brutal."

Mursu shrugged his shoulders. "It's our home. Not a railway stop for big companies. He was determined to keep it that way."

"I can respect that."

"What did your dad do?" Mursu inquired.

Rotor shut his eyes, and breathed slowly. It was the obvious question, and he shoulda known it was coming, but it still hit hard.

"I planned the route here avoiding him. We'll leave it at that." Rotor stood up and dropped the rest of the coffee into his mouth, patting the bottom of the cup to get the dregs. "Word to the wise Mursu. Don't ask personal questions, these guys are stressed enough as it is, and you haven't left the best first impression." He patted Mursu on the back, and gave him a smile, the first one he'd offered since last night. "Come on, let's gather some things before they wake up."

They both picked up their things and clambered out into the much warmer hallway, where two of the other local walruses had kept the fire going along. They would welcome visitors and travellers, if Rotor had it correctly, it was businessmen and people willing to exploit the natural resources around here that they took issue with. His father's image came back to him, as he shook his head. He had much of the same issue, but with everyone. It had started out innocently enough, but his care for his village slowly turned into conquest over other villages and settlements.

It had been a couple of months since they had last seen each other, with Rotor escaping from his father's jail, taking something vital from him. He had no great desire to go back, considering.

"How yer doin' Rotor?"

Bunnie was sat on the opposite end of the room, sat down with what appeared to be steaming carrot stew.

"What're you doing awake?"

"Ya ever slept next to ice cold metal? Antoine nearly kicked me out of bed while asleep." Bunnie laughed while yawning. "Plus anyway, us rabbits are active, I'll live on little sleep." Her gaze hardened, looking behind Rotor. "G'mornin."

Mursu walked over and held his hand in front of his face, looking down.

"It's a Holoskan thing, it means he's sorry." explained Rotor, after the brief awkward pause.

"Not me he should be apologisin' to." said Bunnie bluntly, getting back to her

stew.

"I will make up to group!" Mursu exclaimed in his broken English, his head still lowered.

Rotor patted his back and walked to the entry to pick up the gang's bags and collected materials on the way. He had had a talk with the other walrus's while fixing Nicole, Mursu wasn't a bad lad, but he was a bit odd. Far too happy for their liking. Holoskans by nature were deadpan, moody until given a reason to think otherwise. Well, the Walrus's anyway, the human's were a lot more in the way of community spirit. Part of him reckoned the split was made just because of the humans unwavering optimism and good spirits, it annoyed them, how they could get on better than they ever could. Was probably why they disliked Mursu, he reminded them too much of them.

That being said, his survival instinct was obviously inherited, Rotor's fist was stopped easily by his hands. Guess you had to pick up your surroundings somewhat.

He knocked on Antoine's door and stepped back, as three foot of steel thrust through.

"You're fixing that T'wan! We're not on the Sky Patrol!"

"Laisse-moi tranquille!"

"That better be French for "I will"" muttered Rotor. It wasn't that Antoine was bad at mornings, it was that there was no word to his knowledge that could possibly convey how abysmal Antoine was at getting up at anything other than his own time. How he wanted to become a soldier when he was younger, he'd never know.

Ignoring the French cursing, he went over to Sally and Nicole's room, knocking on it slightly. "You up?" he asked, loud, but not unkindly.

"Sally's covered her head with the pillow, Rotor." replied Nicole's

tinned voice. There was a brief scuffle behind the door before it continued. "She's now trying to smother the handheld. Give us ten minutes."

Chuckling, he moved back into the kitchen to wait for them, lifting his coffee off the table - the table legs bending back into shape - and watched the sunset rise over the horizon, basking the outpost in its glow.

* * *

An hour later, after Antoine had finally got out of bed, being carried out by his wife while still holding his pillow, the team gathered around one of the tables with their hot drinks, ready to take the next day on their belt.

It was half a day's walk to the Sun temple from this point onwards. It was a pity the Tornado was no longer available, but the blizzard outside would have stopped any chances of that, the white veil of tundra covered the sky, meaning that a foot from your vision would be nothing but a white abyss.

For this purpose, Antoine and Bunnie reluctantly agreed to bring Mursu along, once Rotor had pointed out how suicidal this would be without him.

Sally had stayed silent throughout the discussion, and just nodded her head when they asked for her approval. While Rotor was heading this part of the mission due to his experience in this kind of weather, it was unthinkable to go against Sally's word in matters of diplomacy. She wasn't the best fighter, for sure, and sometimes her missionary tactics had flaws, but it was a small team, you couldn't account for every eventuality. The main point however was her royal upbringing. Not that she flaunted it, of course, she had worked hard to break off those shackles of expectation.

But growing up with King Acorn had refined her authority to an edge that Sally was oblivious to. It felt intrinsically wrong to argue against her. She welcomed debate and discourse of course, but it was felt among the party at any given time she was probably right.

Apart from Antoine, of course, who seemed to be a bit more brave when it came to facing off against the Princess's opinion, something the others couldn't quite pin down.

"So now that's been sorted out, Sally, take it away." said Rotor, gesturing towards the chipmunk, who was still glaring at their guide.

"Right." said Sally, spreading out a much more concise map that covered this particular area. "Considering the weather, we're going to be using the abandoned tunnel to the north, as a shortcut. According to Nicole's data analysis, there's been some local newspapers which detail some bandits working around this area, some sort of outpost kinda deal somewhere in one of the passages. We want to avoid them, if possible."

"What kind of bandits?" asked Antoine, cleaning his sword while glancing at the map.

"Not sure. I'm going to assume the worst possible scenario, and it will be in our best interest to not be seen."

"No need!"

They all turned to Mursu, who cowered back in their glare.

"What are yer sayin'?" asked Bunnie, who's hardened eyes burned through the walrus. Mursu faced this head on, as the red hot lasers emanating from Sally's vision was a much less preferable alternative.

"T-the bandits? Nothing but local youths. We use kids to scare away big businesses. It works well."

"Will they harm us?" asked Rotor.

"They still a nuisance, they throw rocks, but you throw rock or two back, they run far."

"Zey try to throw a rock at me zey will be getting turned into a kebab."

"Antoine!" laughed Bunnie, knocking him on the head with her hand. "They're children." Noticing she caught her husband with the sharper edge of her wrist, she patted her now in pain spouse. "Just hit 'em with the hilt."

Sally smiled, starting to pack up the map.

"We'll head off in five minutes, get your stuff together. And for god's sake Bunnie, get a cloth, you've actually dug into his head a bit, I can see blood in his hair."

She finished with the map and started the arduous task of putting on her many layers. As a chipmunk, daughter of a squirrel, she thought she'd be better off with the cold. Or at least, not as bad as this, as she shoved the second hot water bottle in her jumper. She liked to attribute it to the hibernation period, but she wasn't sure if that actually took part when it was winter or when it was this cold. And even then, they slept through this cold. Slept through what must be minus twenty degrees celcius. It wasn't enough she was failing as a leader, she had to fail at being her own god damn species.

"Sally?"

She looked around to see Nicole's partial hologram come out of her handheld.

"Hey, you promised you'd stay in there." said Sally, accusingly.

"I'm bored in there and we haven't left yet, be fair."

"Still."

Nicole floated over to the table, where she leant using her hologrammatic hand.

"You okay though, yeah?" asked Nicole worryingly.

"I'm fine, Nic."

"You say that, but I don't think you mean it."

Nicole leant over to hug Sally, and fell straight through her.

"Christ Nicole, I could see your circuitry." said Sally, blinking her eyes to get her vision back.

"F-forgot I was a hologram, sorry Sal" said Nicole, grinning innocently.

"Sooner we get out of here, the better, is all."

"Well, I don't think that's going to be any trouble, that guide said it was just a bunch of kids."

Sally sighed outwardly, and lifted her bag onto her back to test the weight.

"I'm going to be telling the guys to assume the worst still. I … I don't trust that guy."

"It was an accident, Sally. Look, it coulda happened with anyone."

"Back in your handheld Nic."

There was a brief pause while Nicole searched for words, and gave up. Sadly, she dematerialised, leaving Sally to herself again.

"Sorry Nicole."

The handheld chirped once in her jacket. Sally recognised the tone, and realised she must have upset her, but this was for her own good. She just hoped Nicole realised that.

Five minutes later, Sally stumbled into the lobby where the gang was waiting for her. She nodded to them, and carried on trying to zip up her last coat.

"Right, guys." Sally started, still fumbling with the zipper. "We're going to make a dash for the tunnel, to avoid ..." She yanked on the thing once more, and got the fabric stuck in between the zip's hold. "Fine, it can stay like that, I'm not even mad." Sally's arms fell defeatedly to her sides. "We're trying not to get caught up in this snow, basically. A quick rush through this blizzard should get us there with minimal fuss, and then we can don lights and see if we can make it through this tunnel and to the temple."

The others nodded, picking up their bags from the frosty wooden floor, ready to take on the wilderness through the white fog. Antoine paused, and turned back around to Sally, who watched as he awkwardly tried to speak what was on his mind.

"Princess?"

"Yes, Antoine?"

"What if… well, we do not find anything there?"

Bunnie and Rotor paused in their movements, waiting for Sally to say something, as the howling wind outside suddenly filled the void of sound, the absence of noise, not even a breath, as the universe decided on what it would do next.

Sally picked up her bag, after exerting much effort, as she walked past the group and to the door.

"We'll find something. We can't afford not to."

Bunnie lifted her arm to say something, but Rotor placed it back down again, causing the rabbit to sigh.

"Of course we will, hun." she said, as she walked over to Sally and gave her a hug, her metal arm wrapping around the chipmunk, who embraced her back.

"You're too good Bunnie." Sally said, smiling at her friend. "Right. No more stalling, we need to face this head on." She grasped the door's heavy handle, it's metal holdings already showing the sign of the cold from outside, they were freezing to the touch. "What was it he used to say? ...oh yeah. Let's do it to it guys."

She flung the door open, walking through the wind and the snow already starting to buffer the entrace. After some time, the walrus's at the outpost closed them once more, leaving only some snowy footprints and the faint noise of a redheaded chipmunk complaining about the cold to anyone who would listen.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

The blizzard raged on outside the tunnel's entrance, the occupants of which were busy thawing out their extremities on a temporary fire that Bunnie had set, blasting some wooden tracks they had ripped off the disused line. The flickering light from the flames illuminated the inner walls of the tunnel, albeit dimly, but it let the group gather around to discuss the route from here on out.

It had taken them half an hour, give or take, to trundle through the solid mass of free-falling snow and hail. It would take longer to get through this winding tunnel for sure, but the cover from the elements would be an invaluable bonus to their journey. Even Rotor had noticed the sudden drop in temperature as the sun got blocked out by the clouds. He wouldn't have let anyone know, but they had caught glimpses of him shaking his hands to get the blood back into his system.

The others hadn't fared much better. Antoine's old military uniform was now hanging off a plank near the fire to dry, as Antoine leant up to Bunnie's metal arm. Third degree burns from the glowing appendage be damned, he wasn't moving from that spot, as much for warmth as comfort from his wife.

Sally and Nicole were still wrapped in a blanket, tied up on Rotor's bag, which was also propped up to take some comfort from the red hot flames. It'd taken a whole three minutes into the journey before Nicole had put her foot down, taken solid form and asked Rotor to strap Sally to his back and carry her. Rotor hadn't minded of course, leaving a sulking, yet very grateful chipmunk to shield herself away from the elements wrapped up in a sleeping bag, hearing only the shrieking wind knock against her warm cocoon.

"Right." said Sally, above the muted blizzard and roaring fire in front of her. "Firstly, thank you Rotor, you've done stellar so far for getting us here."

"Well, y'know I try." shrugged Rotor, opening his flask and knocking everyone slightly aback by the strength. "Although, wouldn't have got there without Mursu's help." Rotor knocked his flask on Mursu's gear, who smiled to the group. "Cheers man."

Bunnie and Antoine nodded to the walrus, who gave them a polite nod

back.

"I guess." muttered Sally, staring into the flames, ignoring the violent chirping in her pocket that buzzed against her hip.

"So, ze plan, Princess?"

Sally unzipped her sleeping bag, climbing out awkwardly as her half-dead legs failed to cooperate.

"Good question T'wan." She nodded towards the chasm, where the rails of the tracks glistened in the firelight before disappearing out of view. "We're going to follow this trail onwards, apparently one of the exits leads out to the sun temple. Should be able to see it, the exits are marked." She glanced over to Rotor and Antoine. "Obviously, one of you guys is going to have to point it out, I can't make track of the damn symbols."

They nodded, and started to get their gear in order. Antoine's uniform had just about dried out now. He didn't usually wear his uniform, his days of being in Knothole's army was behind him, but his winter uniform given to him all those years ago was showing it's worth now. The company who supplied them was taken over by Eggman during his first takeover, and had found more lucrative business mass producing the Egg Jackets his army had loved so much. Sally raised an eyebrow curiously at the uniform. She wondered what they'd been up to since the incident.

Bunnie's arm clicked, and lit up the tunnel in a white light, highlighting more of the tunnel's vast route.

"Don't know what we'd do without you, Bunnie" said Sally.

"Ya'd be dead." agreed Bunnie, using her right hand to configure the settings on her metal arm. "Ya know what the worse thing is, they give me this swiss-army metal arm -" she clicked a button, which displayed a blue wireframe grid off the walls, a 3d representation of the unseen. "This all purpose utensil of a limb, and Rotor still refuses to put a chainsaw on there."

Rotor looked up from packing his bag.

"Again, Bunnie, I'm not saying it wouldn't look cool, but god no."

"Absolute killjoy, sugah."

The others finished packing their things, and using Bunnie's grid and light, they saw their way onwards throughout the tunnels passageway.

The workmanship, admittedly, was beautiful. The rails had indeed frosted over in the tunnel, and large mounds of solid ice covered a majority of the tracks. That being said, it wasn't a half-arsed job by any stretch of the imagination. Even the tunnel's walls had carvings on, scratched painstakingly into the concrete.

"Who made all of these?" inquired Sally, out loud.

Rotor caught her gaze and looked at the walls.

"Hell, I have no idea. They look beautiful though."

Mursu paused and stared with them once he caught up.

"My father. Friends too." explained the guide, shifting the weight of his bag from one shoulder to the other. "Wanted to show they made it."

"Why would they want to leave their memory on a tunnel they knew was doomed to fail?" asked Sally.

"They had fun making it, yes?" said Mursu, running his hand down one of the carvings. "Has a history. Why forget that?"

Bunnie's light, being attached to her and all, was fading away as the three were left behind.

"Just because old and unused, doesn't mean can't be respected." he continued, removing his hand off the handiwork. "Father worked on better projects, had new experiences, new memories. But why forget old ones?"

"Hey y'all!"

The group looked around to see Bunnie and Antoine, who had stopped to wait for them.

"I don' mind being on mah own with T'wan with the only decent light source but I ain' comin' back for ya."

"We're coming now." Sally shouted back, and rushed onwards to catch them up.

Nicole buzzed from her pocket. Sally switched on her earmuffs, which doubled as headphones.

"Hey, what's up." asked Sally, slowing down to a walk, leaving her in relative privacy.

"I wish you'd let me out, I can't see jack here."

"We went over this. And I ended up asking Rotor for help."

"Sal, I asked Rotor for help."

"Not the point." she muttered, climbing over some ice that had formed around the tracks, running up the wall in a stunning and eerie pattern that spiralled all the way round the tunnel. Like one of the loops in Green Hill, she thought as she followed the ice's route through the place.

"Judging from the estimated route, we should be getting close now" came Nicole's tinned voice, which hesitated before carrying on. "If it's any consolation Sally, if it's not anything to do with Sonic, I'm sure it'll probably help us in our search."

Nicole paused as Sally said nothing, just walked in silence.

"Sally..."

Sally gave up trying to ignore her, there wasn't much point. She could try and be strong in front of the others, but Nicole was uncomfortably good at reading her.

"It has to be Nic. Or … at least I hope so. I..." she found herself both reluctant and willing to speak about the whole reason they came. Everyone knew it, but staying silent on the matter made it seem… less real. "I just don't get it Nic. Everyone just started vanishing in front of us, they can't have just gone."

"I'd have blamed Eggman but..."

"Yeah, that got me. I know his Egg Bosses are gonna be fighting with each other for some time. I'm hoping on that Pronghorn from way back when though, I think she might be able to do some good there."

"Against Thunderbolt and Rotor's dad?"

"Christ, I don't envy her."

"Well, you know, I checked for patterns" bleeped Nicole, indicating her processor was busy, most probably collating data. "All the people who vanished, I can't see any correlation."

"I don't get why Cream and her mum went though. I'd get Cream, but Vanilla's not a threat to anyone." She paused, remembering. "Apart from that one time Sonic put his elbows on the table. Shoulda seen her wield that rolling pin."

Nicole laughed, her cute tinned laughter making Sally giggle as well. It was good to talk about the guys again, even if briefly. Not that she wasn't the only one bottling up how much she missed them. She could hear Bunnie through the walls of the Skypatrol, crying when the thought no-one was looking. Stronger than the rest of them for sure, but Tails and Cream were like siblings to her. Since going on this mission she had reverted a bit more to her actual self again, or at least, she was putting on a brave face in front of people. Because it seemed like they were getting somewhere, Sally knew this. It's the only reason she was keeping it together so well. If this burst of energy that showed itself on the radar had nothing to do with Sonic, or hell, even Eggman, she wasn't sure how the team would take it.

"We'll find something though, I promise it." lied Sally. Nicole probably knew this, but to be fair to her, she beeped a reassuring chirp, and fell silent again, leaving Sally to catch back up with the group.

About twenty minutes of walking later, walking in silence to conserve energy, they had made headway, quite a distance into the deep vastness of the tunnel. This far in they left echoes of every step they took, and even every breath they'd make throughout the chasm, reverberating across the walls like a shockwave.

Suddenly, a click echoed back, not one of the gang's making. They all froze in its wake.

" _Everyone, take cover!_ " Sally hissed at the gang, which unfortunately echoed back through the tunnel, responding as it were to the occupants within.

A laugh spun its way past the gang and onwards through the trail they'd made, soon joined in by snickering, which became deafening as the noise bounced off itself and off the concrete walls.

Sally shot a look at Mursu, who leant in and spoke to Rotor in hushed tones. After a couple of minutes, Rotor whipped out a tablet and typed on it, until Nicole buzzed in her pocket.

"These are the kids Mursu was talking about. Harmless enough."

She raised her eyebrows at him. He picked a stone up from the track, and lobbed it over to the noise of the children. The sound of it bouncing off the rail and wood silenced the laughter throughout the tunnel.

She looked around to Antoine and Bunnie, who were peeking over from behind their cover, staring intently at the pebble, which had just finished it's momentum based journey, slowly spiralling around.

"Ah think that stopped them."

"Kids are damn lucky zey don't feel the hilt of my sword."

"Were ye scared hun?" teased Bunnie, flashing him a cheeky grin.

Antoine stood up, brushing himself off.

"Nonsense." he pouted. "Zey just caught me off guard."

He stepped out from behind cover, walking up the track as the group watched him go.

"If I see but one rock, I drag you all back home to your parents. Oui?"

A bright red light illuminated the tunnel, leaving Antoine as a sillhouette, his shadow protruding far past himself and the group. As Sally covered her hands from the light, her hands now shaded crimson, she heard a faint but audible noise, getting higher in frequency, it's volume increasing until-

"S-sacre bleu."

Bunnie's feet immediately whirred, blasting herself towards Antoine's direction as Sally, Rotor and Mursu ducked down again behind the concrete partitioning. It was evident now what the light was, as they heard the scorching sizzle of the laser tearing it's way down the track, burning charred lines on everything it hit.

Sally crawled her way over to Mursu and raised her fist near his face.

"You said it was children!"

"Wait-" stammered their guide.

"Nothing but harmless children trying to scare off tourists!" she yelled angrily, her fist shaking, holding herself back from clocking him in the jaw. "A laser, for crying out-"

They were interrupted by two bodies hitting the ground next to them, bouncing off the rails and sprawling out about fifty yards away.

Antoine got up slowly, holding his arm painfully, and checked on his wife.

"Is she ok?" asked Rotor, over the deafening roar of the laser, which hadn't given up. It's erratic sounding behaviour, as well as some of the scorching hot energy that would leave burn marks near where they sat indicated that they weren't aiming as much as wildly swinging the trajectory at a guessed target.

"S-she's breathing, but..."

Rotor scrambled over, and picked her up.

Well, most of her.

Sally nearly puked.

"Ze holding's of her leg have come loose, zey took a direct hit."

They dragged her over to cover where they could assess the situation. Her leg, which Antoine dragged with him, had suffered a massive blow. It had held up against the laser well enough, Uncle Chuck's cybernetics were top of their field. Or at least second, admitted Sally, looking at the damage. The laser had unfortunately bent some of the metal out of shape, near the thigh region, causing the bolts that attached it to herself to come loose.

"Can you fix it Rotor!?" Sally shouted over the din of the still rampant shot being fired by their ambushers.

"I think I can, but we need to get out of here now!"

"We can't head back out of cover, one wayward shot from that thing, without protection we'd be killed, easily."

"Ze cold wouldn't do any favours either, not with these wounds."

They looked at Antoine, who was still grasping his arm.

"Did it get you?" asked Sally, worriedly.

Looking up at the group, he removed his hand from his burnt arm, the smell of singed fur and burnt skin rising from him.

"It just grazed me, Bunnie was of taking ze most of ze damage." he said, putting his hand back on his arm. "If zey'd hurt but a hair on her head..."

"Easy there Antoine. We'll have a word with them later." she assured him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Among some others I want to have a word with." she finished, shooting a glare at Mursu, who looked down at the ground, wincing everytime the wayward laser shot past.

Rotor noted this and whispered to the cowering walrus, who gestured down the way.

"Right…" started Rotor, picking up Bunnie from the ground. "Mursu says there's an old maintenance room a bit back where we came from. Has a ladder underground to an old sewage line, runs adjacent to the tunnel. It's our best chance of avoiding these guys."

"And why in the hell should we trust him?" spat the chipmunk.

"Sally-"

"No, Rotor, I'm not having it, first Nicole, now Bunnie, this could have been a trap!"

"We have no other option Sal!" yelled Rotor, taking Sally aback. "I noticed the room on the way here, it's out best option for now as it is. I want to ask him a couple of questions too but now is not the time, understand?"

They sat there glaring at each other in relative silence as the shooting from their attackers raged on.

Sally sighed, and helped pick up some of the bags, giving a quick smile at Rotor.

"I'm gonna have to go through the hierarchy at some point Rotor." she joked, as Rotor patted her head.

"Pulling the princess card already huh?" he replied back, laughing. "Look, I trust your decisions, you know I do, but I think your timings off. We'll question him once we're safe."

Antoine sat himself upright on the wall, still holding on to his heavily burned arm.

"Can we move and save my wife, please?" he said weakly, his eyes not once moving from Bunnie's unconscious body.

"You holding up ok T'wan?" asked Sally, lifting him up, putting his non damaged arm around her shoulders for support.

"Do not mind me, I'll be fine." he said, before puking on the floor in front of them.

"Christ."

"Just a bit painful, Princess, but Bunnie comes first, oui?"

Sally watched as he fell into unconsciousness himself, finally tearing his gaze away from his equally unconcious wife.

"How are we going to get past this laser then?" asked Rotor, peeking out from behind cover. "It doesn't seem to be aiming AT us, but I can't promise with us carrying two people we won't be accidentally hit by it."

Sally smiled, picking up another pebble from the track.

"Simple." she laughed. "I didn't spend months of my life listening to daddy's military advisor for nothing."

Tossing the pebble up in the air a couple of times, she tested the weight of it in her grasp.

"Tactics, Rotor."

She launched the pebble as far as it could towards the assailants, where she heard it, even above the roaring din of the laser's hellfire, bounce off one of the rails.

Within but a second, concentrated aiming annihilated the poor thing, and started to melt the steel rails that it bounced off alongside it.

They used the temporary distraction to make a run for it back along the route they came, not being noticed by those firing upon them.

A minute later, both Sally and Antoine burst through the maintenance door, collapsing in a pile. Following them, Rotor, still holding Bunnie, and Mursu, who had been lumbered with everyone's luggage. To be fair to him, he was one strong walrus.

Rotor lay Bunnie down on one of the desks, as Sally picked Antoine up from the ground and sat him on a spare folding chair she had found in the corner.

This maintenance room hadn't been used in years it seemed, open cans of dried and frozen paint lay strewn across the room, and old brooms and ladders littered the floor. The shelves in the room, of which there were many, held an assortment of items, which Rotor was looking through now.

"I don't think you're going to find advanced cybernetical repair tools here Rotor." she said, watching him go.

"A phillips would be a start." he grunted, moving through the boxes of junk.

Coughing, Bunnie's eyes started to flicker open, taking in the room, and Sally's face.

"H-hey Bunnie, you ok?"

"A-ah think so." she said, focusing on Sally. "W-where's Antoine?"

Sally pointed towards Antoine, who's head lolled back into the wall with a thud.

"He took a bit of the blast from before, but he should be fine Bun."

"That's good." she smiled weakly. "I was hopin' ah blocked all of it, but that was somethin' else. Good thing mah limbs can take it."

Sally's face gave it away. Bunnie mustered up her strength to pull herself upwards, where she saw Rotor with her leg around his shoulder, still looking through the shelves.

"It's probably a good thing T'wan is knocked out, considerin'"

Sally snorted and burst out laughing, giving Bunnie a hug at the same time. Rotor turned around nonplussed at the pair, who were giggling at him.

"Y'know what, I don't think I want to know what you two are laughing at." he said, counting through some bolts in his hand. "How you holding up Bunnie?"

"Legless."

"Hilarious."

He placed his tools on the side as the girls continued smirking.

"Bunnie, I think we might need to go to Uncle Chuck to get this leg properly fixed. This stuff is too advanced for me, unfortunately. I can get it put back on your leg, but all this wiring..." he gestured at the loose connections, charred wiring and motherboards. "...is beyond me. You'll basically be limping from here on out."

"Ah'll take it." grunted Bunnie, lying back down as Rotor continued his search through the boxes. "God knows ah've had my share fair of practice."

"Bunnie, I'm so sorr-"

"Guys, it's fine." she said, smiling at the ceiling. "Ah rescued Antoine. Ah'm happy if sacrificing these means you guys can live."

"Aww Bunnie" replied Sally, tears in her eyes.

"Antoine first though."

"Understandably."

"Wish I could do the same with my love, mind you."

"What's that?"

"Keep him safe in my pocket."

Rotor turned around, and rubbed his eyes in exhaustion.

"No hitting the patients, for god's sake." he said to a crimson Sally, placing his tools next to Bunnie, who was still laughing, holding her arm where Sally had just thumped it. "And stop provoking her."

He placed the leg on the table, trying to get it lined up properly.

"This'll take a while, may as well get a bit of rest, Sal." he told her as he got to work.

Sally stood up and waited by the door, near Antoine. He'd do fine once he woke up, the pain would have calmed down a bit by then. Sally's scarf had been made into a temporary bandage for him, which would do at least some relief to what was going to be a lengthy recovery for him.

Who were the guys who were shooting at them? They were no children, or at least, she hoped not, but at the same time no attempt had been made to chase after them. They didn't seem on the offensive, at all, but more keeping them out. They were certainly doing a better job than the children at least. That being said she wasn't ready to give them too much credit. If Bunnie had mis-timed her rescue it was possible that Antoine would have been carried home in an urn.

She focused an angry stare at Mursu, who was sat…

Crying.

She couldn't help it, she knew her weak point was her emotions. And right now, she was still livid at this man, who had been the cause of three of her friends injuries in just one day, but the utter state of the guy at the moment, weeping and huddled up in a corner away from everyone else, it was taking all the thunder out of her.

She walked on over to him, who backed away from her, obviously afraid.

"You seriously didn't know?" she asked him, looking at his soaking wet eyes.

He shook his head quickly.

"There were kids, here, month ago." he responded, through his tears. "I swear it."

"Who are these guys then?"

He shook his head again, looking straight at her.

"I d-don't know."

She didn't have it in her to berate the guy. She knew what it was like to fail, god knows she knew more than most. Her best laid plans had been torn apart due to her own recklessness, or being outplayed by Eggman all those months ago, when the planet itself tore itself asunder. The depression, the feelings of utter despair mixed with the harrowing knowledge that it was her plan that got people into the mess they were in, that was almost too much to bear.

But she had friends that had helped her, didn't she?. The rest of the Freedom Fighters of course, stronger than she was by far, but Amy, Cream, Sonic… back when they were still around.

She shook the thought out from her mind. This wasn't the time to dwell on that, not with everything else happening at the moment.

She patted him on the shoulder - albeit awkwardly - and walked back to Antoine, who had woken up slightly in the interim.

"How're you holding up?"

"Stings like you wouldn't believe, Princess." said Antoine grimacing. "We made it out safe then?"

"All in one piece."

"Ah beg to differ!" Bunnie called out from her makeshift operating table.

Standing up quickly, he rushed over to his wife's side, where Rotor stood, rolling his eyes as he paused welding.

"I am so glad you're safe mon ami."

"I'm made of hard stuff, hun." said Bunnie, rapping on her metal arm. "Well… mostly, but it'll take a lot more to stop me, don't ya worry." She leant over and gave him a brief kiss, smiling at him.

"I'll weld you to her if you don't get off, French boy."

Looking around the room as Antoine hurriedly got out of the way oas Rotor's not quite precision tools got to business, she noticed the door at the back. She couldn't make head nor tails out of the writing, but the carved logo up above was fairly obvious, a pipe, with the engraving being so fine as to see individual water droplets pour out of it.

This would be the way to go for sure, but looking at the rest of the gang, Antoine's cut probably needed bandaging up properly before entering, and the only ones trained in first aid was Bunnie, who had actually spent the time learning while stuck in care back in Knothole. Bunnie was unfortunately busy being fixed, and judging by the tools Rotor was using, it wasn't going to be a quick nor easy thing to get finished. That left Mursu, who looked emotionally spent. While she still felt a pang of sympathy for their guide, she couldn't quite bring herself to go alone with him, she wasn't in the best frame of mind herself, without the rest of the group she would have lashed out at someone, anyone at this point, and good intentioned or not she knew she'd end up throwing a punch at the guy. And god knows he probably felt bad about all this, a punch would be the last thing he'd need, despite the knowledge of the wonders it would do for herself.

Either way, she thought, there'd be no good reason to drag Bunnie down a path if it was going the wrong way, and especially not Antoine if they ran into anything like from which they had just escaped.

"I'm gonna scout ahead."

The group turned around to look at her, Bunnie and Antoine wincing as they did so, almost in unison. They really were suited for each other, as annoying as it was. Antoine would sometimes finish Bunnie's sentences, albeit in French, the effect somewhat coming across like sitting on the remote and turning on the translator halfway through a film.

"But Princess, without Bunnie and me, you'd be defenseless." responded Antoine, who was visibly trying to hold off the pain he felt lifting his sword. A fifty percent chance and the lazer had only gone and knocked his sword-arm out of commission.

"Hey, I got my wrist-swords, I can hold my own."

The look on the gangs face immediately showed her how well they thought she could hold up her own. It was… lack of practice really, as she absent mindedly started rubbing her bracelets, the source of her best weapon… for a given value of best. She would be able to take out a badnik, even the occasional swatbot, but her expertise was leadership, not fighting, as much as it annoyed her. What kind of leader wasn't able to hold her own amongst her group?

"I've been practicing, Antoine." she lied, before addressing them all. "Either way, no-one's in a good enough state to face getting lost, and especially not if we run into anyone. I'm the only one that's not injured or busy, and it's not like I can do much to help here."

"Hun, ah'd stamp my foot down if ah had it on." said Bunnie.

"I'm working my fastest, Bunnie" sighed Rotor, going through his tools.

"Ah know ya are sugah. But mah point still stands, Sal, yer ain't goin' on yer own, ah got caught by that thing and ah got jets."

"Had."

"Watch it hun, I'll throw it at ya."

Sally reached into her pocket and took out Nicole's handheld, allowing Nicole to shoot out, her solid form materialising in front of all of them.

"Bunnie, Antoine, are you ok!?" Nicole rushed over to the both of them, where they exchanged hugs, Antoine wincing in pain as Nicole gripped on tight.

"S-sacre-"

Nicole jumped back in horror.

"Oh god, Antoine, I didn't mean it, I'm so sorry!"

Bunnie laughed as Antoine held his wound, but still managing a grin at how flustered the lynx was getting.

"Nic will be with me instead. She'll be able to map out the tunnel network down there."

"Not only that," said Rotor, placing his wrench down by Bunnie's waist, walking over to Sally, "but if we … if you can give me her handheld for a brief second Sal"

She hesitated.

"Sally, I fixed her, come on."

Nicole placed her hand on Sally's shoulder.

"Sal, you can do it." reassured Nicole, rubbing her thumb on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay."

Reluctantly, Sally held out the device. It took Rotor a couple of pulls to release Sally's grip, who immediately held Nicole's hand's once the handheld was out of her reach.

"It's only a little configuration, see?" he clicked away, as Nicole's solid form flickered intermittently, her solid and hologrammatic form appearing both at once, and then none at all, until Rotor clicked the final button, restoring her solid form once more. She shook the feeling off. Sally didn't ask how it felt, being one, or the other. It always felt a bit personal. They were close friends of course… very close friends, but the whole organic/robotic thing was a topic they tried not to dwell on too much. To Sally, Nicole was the same as anyone else. Well, that was a lie, she was much more than that. She was someone Sally could fully depend on, which, barring Mursu of course, the poor thing, was a quality she shared with everyone else in this room.

Sally was biased towards Nicole, of course, but that was neither here nor there. Bunnie was more than aware of this, to Sally's chagrin, which had lead to what Bunnie called playful banter, and what Sally could only refer to as bullying. It was only her years of being in the freedom fighters that held her back, as tenuous as the grip was, from complaining to her father. You could take the princess out of her kingdom, but by god, as much as she wanted to, you couldn't drag that royal upbringing out of the princess.

"What have you done?" asked Sally suspiciously, taking back the handheld from Rotor, staring at him with her questioning eyes.

"Turned up the sound range on her device. Not too much that she'll hear outside the tunnel, but enough to hear ahead, by a far distance."

"You ok there Nic?" asked Sally, watching as Nicole's eyes had gone slightly hazy, as if she was staring into space.

"I swear I can hear you all think."

"Thattagirl" said Rotor, ruffling Nicole's hair.

"Ya shouldn' listen to what Sally thinks Nic, ya'll go blind. And deaf, probably"

Rotor caught the bolt before it hit Bunnie, glaring at the chipmunk.

"I hope you feel ashamed, hitting the injured." he said, placing the bolt down with a clunk.

"I'm gutted I missed."

Bunnie held out her tongue, as her husband giggled, holding her hand.

"Either way, we're off." she said. "If we hear so much as anything, we'll send out a distress signal to you guys and head straight back. We'll try and map out as much as we can, and then when Rotor's fixed you up, you should be able to take the safest route."

"Sounds like a plan."

They picked up their belongings and head out the door, giving a farewell wave to the gang. Mursu gave a little wave too, through his tears. She hesitated, but gave him a friendly nod despite this. As Sally carefully pushed the door to, Nicole switched over to her holographic mode, allowing her to move more freely throughout the tunnel. They went through the side tunnel, attempting to be as silent as they could, as Nicole analysed the soundwaves throughout the tunnel ahead.

"Y'hear anything Nic?" asked Sally, cautiously stepping onwards, as to not interfere with Nicole's radar.

"Nothing yet."

They carried on, Nicole's form zipping through the tunnel this way and that, ears primed and ready, twitching at step Sally made, of every wayward snow displacement through the tunnel. Smiling, Sally walked onwards. Nicole was genuinely unaware she did it, her ears moved on their own to external and internal stimuli, despite having no reason to do so… at least, to a machine. She was learning to be self-consciously alive.

Well, thought Sally, more so. There was no beating around the bush, and it was somewhat hard to point out anything else as Nicole's form lit up the tunnel as she pressed her head to it, listening out for tremors. Nicole was for all intents and purposes an AI in a handheld. But to Sally, she'd become more mobian, more trusting, more understanding than any other being she'd grown up with. The fact it was 0's and 1's speaking to her, she couldn't think like that. How could this lynx, worrying, feeling, being alive, be just 0's and 1's? What was a brain if not electrical signals doing the same thing after all? Firing off in 0's and 1's on repeat? Would you like a tenner? 1. Do you want to go out in the cold and snow for hours and get frostbite? 0. If Sally could think in 0's and 1's then how was binary any different than just the wants and needs of-

"Sally!" buzzed Nicole's voice, directly in her ear.

"One!"

"Wh… what?"

Sally tried again.

"Y-yes?"

"I'm picking up something, roughly five minutes away."

Sally walked on over, watching as Nicole tried to decipher it, squinting as she did so.

"Can you wire the feed into my earphones?" she asked, adjusting her earmuffs. They were by far her favourite present… other than Nicole, obviously, all those years ago. But Tails had built her a pair of earmuffs with built in speakers, essentially just a comfy headset. He had made it himself back when the Freedom Fighters were getting started, some time before the first Death Egg had been launched. Simple things, but she'd been so proud of him, and to be fair, they were gorgeous. He'd come a long way since then, helping Rotor with the Skypatrol, not least held off an entire island invasion using only what was in his shed, but she'd kept these, from way back when. He'd kept insisting with her that he could build her better ones, but she was adamant on these.

Hopefully, they'd find Tails and he could see her wearing them still. He'd probably secretly be proud of that.

"Oh right yeah, two seconds." replied Nicole.

Crackling into life, the audio feed started filtering into Sally's hearing. People … talking, from what she could make out, but it was masked by what sounded like running water, gushing in heavy volumes continuously.

"Some sort of river?" she asked Nicole, who was still listening.

"Underground pipes, spitting out water into an underground stream… of sorts."

"How can you tell they're pipes?"

"Benefit of having the entire internet to sample from, it's the way the waters running and how it echoes off the metal walls and all that." finished Nicole, turning down the volume on the audio.

"Ah."

"I'll explain about it more tonight if you want?"

"My hot water-bottle and a lie in is the only thing I'm looking forward to tonight Nic, in the nicest possible way."

"You're no fun." pouted Nicole, as she zipped on over to her side.

They walked onwards quietly, keeping an ear on the audio that Nicole was still transmitting, as the voices became more and more intelligible.

 _[psshrrrrkrkr- "the weight of th-" shhhhhhhhhhh - "-go of the thing, my hand's slippi-"]_

The crash echoed through their eardrums, followed by an impressive string of swear words.

" _Are you serious? The great mighty bison can't lift a crate?"_

" _Aha, you're funny. Dude, there's something weird about these crates, they don't feel right."_

" _Nah, I … I get that… just let's get them hauled upstairs"_

The sound of footsteps dragged their way on a metallic floor, before the crate dropped again, followed by laughter and more swearing.

" _It's like, actively pushing my hands away from gripping it."_

" _See, I told you!"_

" _Shut your face, I know. Look, if we don't get this to her by 5 we're screwed."_

" _She can lift the damn thing herself."_

Sally and Nicole shared a brief look. 'She?' mouthed Nicole, as Sally shrugged, turning her headphones up.

" _Hey, shush. I'm sure she can hear us."_

" _R-really?"_

" _Remember that dog, Jimmy or something, nice guy. Three kids, wedding ring on his finger?"_

" _Oh christ yeah, went bowling with him… a while back."_

" _Well, I heard he was shouting his mouth off, complaining about the job, saying where she could put the next shipment of crates."_

" _Into the sea?"_

" _Something like that. Well, when was the last time you seen him?"_

" _N-not for a while actually."_

" _Well, 'officially' he's off sick, but I heard he's been kicked out. Most probably, but here's something interesting. That new shipment of food that came in, Terry didn't put it on the order log."_

" _What are you saying?"_

" _You seen a wedding ring in your dinner?"_

The crate dropped again, and the audio feed went quiet.

" _You believe that?"_

" _Oh for god's sake Gary, it's most probably rubbish. That being said, he's not here. I swear that computer she's got is linked in to the walls. Just shut up in any case, I'm not lifting these crates on my own."_

" _You got my heart going there you absolu-"_

The sound tapered away, leaving nought but the pipe water flowing through their feed.

"That doesn't sound good." mumbled Sally, after a lengthy pause.

Nicole zipped back into her handheld, still hidden deep in Sally's coat.

"Nic, anything you can analyse from that?" she asked Nicole, as the handheld beeped away.

"Nothing you couldn't guess already."

"...Damn."

She walked towards the noise, the sound of the two guys had gone, so it stood to reason there was now an empty room waiting for them, hopefully with some clues as to what was going on.

"Crates that make you have trouble holding them? What could that be?" she wondered out loud to herself, easing her way along the small tunnel. "Can a giant magnet do that?"

"Unless they were magnetic or metal themselves, then no."

"Damn it. Well, that's me out of options. What about the boss then? Someone that cruel, possibly Thunderbolt?"

Thunderbolt had been one of their adversaries during the world breaking apart. A feisty chinchilla with a shocking talent, she was Eggmans' number one fan. Was, being the operative word. It was possible in a world without him, she'd be trying to run the world in his image, ever so much as cruel as he had.

That being said, knowing the little round thing, there'd be more posters of Eggman or herself up, the girl couldn't be called subtle.

"I heard nothing that would give it away unfortunately." said Nicole.

"Ah, it's alright."

"Should we go back and tell the others?"

Sally slowed to a halt, weighing the options.

"Well, … we could." she started, looking at the route they just came from. It wasn't too far they had come. This was what, 5 turns from the gang? Was hardly any time at all. And she knew what would happen, Bunnie and Antoine would say they were fine, Rotor would feel obligated to rush, all to help her. If everyone else had gone the extra mile…

"We're carrying on."

Nicole bleeped worriedly.

"Look, just enough to see one of the guys that shot at us." she replied to the still beeping handheld. "If it's something that's worth shooting us for, we may as well let the guys know if we should chance it."

Nicole's bleeping continued, but a lot dimmer, as to only be noticable if one was listening out for it.

"It's fine Nic, honestly. We'll be fine." She patted her pocket, shaking her head to clear her thoughts, and under her breath, she whispered only to herself. "I hope."

They walked onwards, leaving the tunnel, the last light of Sally's torch fading away as they turned the corner, followed slowly by their last footsteps in the snow that lay on the ground, leaving the tunnel as quiet as they found it.

"I think that should do it, Bunnie."

It had taken the best part of an hour, as Rotor lifted his makeshift welding mask and gave Bunnie a thumbs up. Shakily, she lifted herself up using her arms, dragging her leg with her, now attached to her body.

"Well, for a given value of do it in any case." he continued, as he gestured to the appendage. "I've locked the knee mechanisms in place… or rather, welded, it's the best I can do for now."

"Ah'm sure it's fine." said Bunnie, with a weak grin.

"Hold on my sweet!"

Antoine rushed over to her side, letting Bunnie grab a hold of his waist as she tried putting weight on the limb. The results were… interesting, to say the least. Her leg had to stay completely straight, leading to very odd strides, and a near dependence on her husband to use as a crutch.

"Could we not fashion some sort of.. How you say it… wheeling chair?" suggest Antoine, easing his shoulders once they'd done a couple of laps around the room. He and Bunnie would never admit it, but the metal appendages did make the girl heavier than most. Even with one out of commission, it was a testament to Antoine's strength that he was able to so much as help his wife around the room.

"Don'tcha dare." she said quietly back, almost as a murmur. "Ah can walk just fine."

"It'd be easi-"

" _No_."

The ambience of the tunnel filled the room, as the sudden silence left a vacuum for it to occupy. It caused a welcome distraction, considering Antoine was focusing very much on anything but his wife, and Rotor and Mursu got back to organising their gear with attention normally reserved for rocket scientists. The alternative was seeing the fire and resentment in Bunnie's eyes, the coldness in the reply.

They packed in silence, Rotor ransacking any available tools out of the room, Antoine wisely deciding to stay out of Bunnie's way for a while. Bunnie sighed inwardly. She wasn't mad at him, she couldn't be. He had been there for her so many times in the past, he was the one who had helped when she was first this vulnerable. He should've known how she felt about-

She shook her head, her big ears billowing as she did so. Thinking like that was behind her. These were her friends, they meant nothing by it, it was just… mistakes made out of temporary idle-mindedness. They hadn't known what it was like, all those years ago, to be constantly a subject of pity. To have to stay behind, to watch as every other Freedom Fighter fought … well, for freedom. To be stuck in that godforsake-

She'd blasted the damn thing to oblivion. Way before she should've, admittedly. Tails had helped Bunnie to a remote field, where they'd talked. About Sonic and Tails's insecurities. About Antoine, and Bunnie's feelings. Tails was the best little brother she'd never had, he'd always listen, and she was more protective over him than most.

Using Tails as a crutch, she'd blasted those metal confines until there was nothing but melted scrap oozing onto the grass.

It'd taken them an hour to get back home, laughing all the way back before facing the wrath of Rosie.

She snickered. Tails and herself had laughed in her face at the time, they hadn't been able to help it. The month of chores after were worth it, looking back on the whole thing.

"Cup of tea, rabbit?"

Jolted back to the present, Bunnie focused on their guide, who had a cup of admittedly weak tea to present to her.

It was the thought that counted.

"Thanks hun."

"I'm sorry."

"Ah don' worry about it, I've had worse tea."

"I was talking about your leg."

"Ah"

Bunnie sipped her tea embarrassed as Mursu sat next to her.

"I didn't want anyone to be hurt" he said, rubbing his already red eyes.

"Yer a very sentimental walrus, it's gotta be said"

This got a confused look until Rotor, without looking around, translated it into Holoskan.

"Oh. I guess I should be more like the others."

"Nah, it's more honest." she said, giving him a smile.

"I don't think your chipmunk friend thinks so." he replied quietly.

"Now that was jus' unfortunate." laughed Bunnie, punching him lightly with her robot hand. "Look, yer not a bad guy, or a bad person. Hell, yer not even a bad walrus. It'd be nice if Rotor had a bit more heart to be honest."

"I can undo that leg, Rabbit." came Rotor's reply.

"Ah'd like to see ya try."

Antoine laughed as Rotor came back over with a wrench, causing Bunnie to scramble backwards away from the group.

"You're all too kind to me."

They looked back at Mursu, Rotor getting his wrench from Bunnie's knee joints and placing it down again.

"I know walrus's aren't the most welcoming people, but you can't let them drag you down. I know you've grown up with them but ... " Rotor paused in reflection, before walking back to his coffee machine that he'd set up halfway through Bunnie's metallic surgery. "Well, you can't put too much on that. It's the family you choose that matters, not the one you're stuck with."

"Ah."

"You should try moving somewhere new. I've heard Shamar's a nice place this time of year."

"Shamar?"

"Oh, yer gotta go at least once!" exclaimed Bunnie, who'd turned over to him, all excited. "They got sandy dunes as far as the eye can see, an-"

"Sand?"

"Oh god, it's like… snow, but hot, and you can make huge castles… and it gets everywhere that you can find it in your fur for weeks, and -"

Antoine and Rotor left them to it, Bunnie's brochure for the country continuing on as Mursu listened on in wonder. Rotor knew this feeling. Walrus's by and large were … reclusive. Kept to their own country. They knew nothing but snow from when they were born and knew the snow up until the day they died. As it had been for centuries. Moving away from here as a child, not long after his mother died, it'd blown his mind.

"Can we trust him?"

Rotor snapped out of it.

"What?"

"Can we trust him?" repeated Antoine, looking back at the guy talking to his wife.

"I'd… I'd like to think so."

"He's been of causing two incidents so far. Zey nearly took out three of us. Even if he's a nice guy, he's done more damage than the enemy."

Rotor sipped his coffee, Antoine listening in horror as he swore he heard the coffee thud into Rotor's stomach.

"I'd like to think of him as just a massive clutz." he said, keeping his eye on Mursu, who was being enlightened to what it meant to be too warm. Sure it sounded fascinating, but two hours into that kind of weather and Rotor ended up having to seek a passage into the underground where the sun's searing heat couldn't reach him.

"But still..."

"Yeah I get you." said Rotor, putting his coffee down. "If there's a third strike, he's out."

"Out?"

"He's a strong walrus, you have no idea." muttered Rotor, rubbing his fist, where the guy had easily stopped it before with no struggle whatsoever. "He might be softer emotionally but that guy is pure Holoskan Walrus bred and raised. But if something else happens to endanger us, we're going to have to sort him out."

Antoine patted his sword, as Rotor winced.

"I'm sure it won't come to that though."

"He better hope so." replied Antoine, rubbing his burnt arm again.

Suddenly, the sound of footprints came marching down the tunnel, the stampede coming from outside the main tunnel door.

They all looked at each other.

"We could take the same route as Sally and Nicole." suggested Bunnie, attempting to stand up with difficulty.

They hobbled over to the maintenance tunnel, where to their increasing dread, they could hear footsteps coming from there as well.

"Damn." grunted Bunnie, who was already charging her cannon, causing Antoine to ready his sword.

Mursu put all his body weight against the maintenance door, meaning at least one exit was temporarily shut off from any invaders. They all pointed their weapons at the tunnel door, readying up for the attackers.

"How many of them do yer think there are T'wan?"

"Easily one hundred, maybe more."

The footsteps got closer.

"Don't suppose ya got anything up yer sleeve Rotor?"

"I could use the SkyPatrol as a distraction, but that's easily 20 miles away, it wouldn't get here in time, not to mention the snowstorms."

"Ah damn."

They heard a loud thunk as Mursu wedged some metal into the door, essentially bolting it shut.

"I'll fight too."

"Well, we can at least take out four of them" laughed Bunnie, albeit weakly.

The footsteps converged around the door in an almost uniform fashion, where they hastened to a halt.

"Good luck guys" finished Bunnie, pointing her cannon directly at the doors entrance, shielding her eyes away from the inevitable onslaught of-

Someone knocked on the door.

Silently, Bunnie looked at Antoine, who looked as confused as she felt. This was probably not a tactic he'd read up about.

The knocking came again, as a jingle. She recognised it from somewhere. It was … a polite jingle as such. A rat-tattattat kind of knock.

"Hello?" came the muffled voice, behind the door.

Again, the group stayed quiet.

"Right, I know you're in there, I'm opening the door, ok?"

"What do yer want?" replied Bunnie, aiming directly at the door.

"A talk would be nice."

"What, with all yer soldiers?"

"Ok, admittedly, my bad, but you can't be too careful now, can you."

Bunnie gestured with her hands towards Rotor and Mursu to stand by the door, and used Antoine to stand up.

"Tell yer soldiers to get lost, and we'll talk all ya want. Hell, I'll make yer a cup of tea."

"Well, how can I refuse?" came the voice. Loud orders were barked at the soldiers, and the footsteps subsided.

"They gone?" asked Bunnie to the voice while looking at Antoine's face.

"They've gone around the corner for now. Need some safety after all."

Antoine nodded. His acute hearing was less defined than Bunnies, after all, rabbits outclassed coyotes by a fair margin, but with Antoine's military background, he seemed to be able to tell where soldiers were and how they moved. It was impressive to say the least.

"Can I come in?"

She looked around at the group, who were in their positions ready. Mursu's fist was primed with such fierce concentration it would probably decimate the poor mobian or even human to step in with anything but welcome intentions. It made Rotor's heavy wrench look weak in comparison.

"Ah suppose." she said back, loading her arm cannon back to the door. "Slowly, mind you."

The door creaked open slowly, being pushed by a figure with hooded robes, and a mask covering it's head. It was a mobian for sure with the proportions that seemed to be hiding under the robes, which swept behind them as they walked. They had their hands up, obviously noting the prepared ambush.

"Y'know, after so long, I expected a warmer welcome." came the decidedly female voice from under the mask. "How are you Bunnie?"

Antoine gasped, as the hooded figure turned around to see him, grasping his sword towards herself.

"Antoine!" gasped the familiar sounding voice. "Last time I saw you you were..." the voice faltered.

"How do you know us?" said Rotor slowly, lowering his wrench.

"Oh please, the Freedom Fighters?" laughed the figure. "Each one of you a hero and legend in their own right. Also, have you been working out Rotor?"

"No flirtin' missy, you tell us who you are or I'll blast yer outta principle."

"And to think I was once your maid of honour."

She lowered her cannon. "N-no you weren't, that was Sally."

The figure looked behind her, and shut the door to. Removing her mask with her left hand, to a gasp from the Freedom Fighters, the girl shook her head, causing her red hair to swish across her features.

"Well duh." replied Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters.


End file.
